Mother's Day Blues

I wish I could say things got easier in May.  With Anjali's two major surgeries out of the way, we really hoped that Anjali would be on the road to recovery, but a week into May, Anjali seemed to be getting worse and worse.  Although mostly sleeping, she seemed pained and was losing a lot of weight.  Adam's mother left on the Saturday before Mother's Day and my parents arrived that evening.  They were anxious to see her and I had to relay my feelings to them that she was not doing so well to prepare them for the visit.

We visited her that night and I went back to the Ronald McDonald house for a much needed rest from a stressful week at the hospital.  I was looking forward to spending my first Mother's Day with Anjali and my mother.  But then I got a call first thing in the morning from Adam letting me know that they found an infection in the wound site and Anjali would be getting emergency surgery at noon.  My heart dropped. 

The director of the Ronald McDonald house and her family had a wonderful breakfast prepared for all the residents.  It was very touching, but my mother and I could hardly eat as we dreaded the unknowns of knowing Anjali would go back to the operating room.

Anjali's surgery went well.  Dr. Gearheart operated on her.  She had to go back to the operating room 4 more times to keep the wound clean.  From there, the process of recovery started to happen.  And she truly did seem to get better and stronger each day.   There were daily challenges and frustrations, but we were definitely acclimated to life at Johns Hopkins.  During the last week of May, Anjali was allowed to get out of the hospital bed and I was able to hold her in my arms.  It felt so good to hold her again.

What really made all the difference was having family support throughout the whole process.  My parents were there every day to lift my and Anjali's spirits and give me breaks from staying at the hospital.  They were always so positive through it all.  Anjali's other grandparents Papi and Pixie also came to visit and they were so wonderful at spending time with Anjali and their eagerness to help in anyway they could was simply heartwarming.  We are so lucky to have the loving, supportive family that we do.  They have given so much to help Anjali and start her off on the right foot.

We were all so ready to go home at the end of the month.  The end was within sight.  It was hard to believe that this challenge was almost behind us.  Anjali was so excited about the prospect of going back to her blue house in Raleigh and so was I.